Her Choice
by Fallen's child
Summary: Everyone knows that Chat Noir loves ladybug, everyone knows that Chat Noir willing takes the hits for her and would do anything to keep her safe but does anyone know how far she would go to save him? Ladybug knows she is loosing Chat and Marinette knows she is loosing Adrien. He's been protecting her all this time but even so, she can't loose him. She just can't
_Hello! This piece was inspired by the following: [you can find them on youtube]_

 _Fleurie - Hurts Like Hell (Cover by Moralix), Miraculous ladybug || Loved and Lost and Miraculous Ladybug 'Evil Heroes' Comic dub Parts 1,2 and 3 by Natalie Guest! Apologies for the mistakes as this is unbeta'd!_

 _EDIT: I had another read over this and noticed all the mistakes I made. I have attempted to clear it up!_

* * *

"Are you really going to do this?" Tikki quietly asks Marinette as she stands on the roof of her room, staring out at all of Paris as the city slowly comes to life.

"That's a question you already know the answer to." Marinette answers with a peaceful smile that is usually seen on the faces of those who are ready to face death.

School is starting soon.

"Come on Tikki, Spots On!" Marinette calls out into the crisp morning air and in a flash of red, Ladybug stands where Marinette once stood.

With a flick of her wrist, her yo-yo slings out and Ladybug swings away.

X

She stands on the roof opposite of her school doors and watches her classmates make their way into class and when a sleek sliver car pulls up, Ladybug can feel her heart start to beat faster.

She watches as Adrien greets Nino with a coldness that was never there before and her resolve strengthens.

Marinette watches with sad eyes as the pair vanish though the doors. This was something she had to do. She wasn't going to loose him, _either side of him._

With another flick of her wrist, Ladybug once again vanishes from view and flies over the rooftops of Paris.

X

Ladybug lands on the roof of a terrace house that stands opposite to the mansion that is the home to Adrien Agreste and his father, Gabriel Agreste, also known as Hawkmoth.

After she had found out that Chat had been protecting her as Adrien as well as his usual cocky cat self, Marinette felt something within her break. She hated it when Chat took the blows for her, she hated the fear that came with those moments. And the fact that been purifying the Akuma's and taking in the negative energy...just made it worse

So this time it was her turn to save him.

She spent weeks as Ladybug and Marinette searching for the link between Hawkmoth and his victims and in the end it was Gabriel's designs of jewelry that had given him away.

He had created a line that were exact replicas of Miraculous stones, exact in every way. That had given him away. After all how did he know of the Miraculous? What they looked like and what they were? Who else could it be?

It couldn't have been a coincidence. So she watched and waited for him to slip up. And over time he did.

Once it had sunk that the man behind all the akuma attacks was the father of Adrien, of Chat Noir, she had lived in fear for a while, staring at Chat when he wasn't looking wondering how all this was going to affect him in the end. She wondered how he would feel having to be there or even being the one to take Hawkmoth down, his own father!

Ladybug didn't want that happening, she didn't want to put him in a situation like that. And if it meant protecting him, she would take center stage as villain in this case.

Not only that but Hawkmoth was more experience that she or Chat was, it would be best if she faced the man alone. That way if she failed, Paris still had one savoir left.

She didn't know how the fight would go, she didn't know how far she would go but she did know this, if the fight ended with her life, then she wanted to leave no regrets behind.

Ladybug embraced her life as the savior of Paris, living free and untamed and while Marinette also lived her life as herself, embracing her dreams as a designer and never letting opportunities pass her by.

In the end Ladybug knew she didn't have any regrets as either one of her persons.

The open window beckoned to her, a clear invitation from Hawkmoth.

Who was she to be impolite and turn down such an invitation?

X

"So you've found me." The voice of Hawkmoth echos in the empty room.

"I have." Her words are cold and clipped. She didn't come here for small talk.

"And where is Chat Noir?" He asks slyly, she can easily hear the grin in his voice.

Ladybug doesn't reply, her mouth forming a tense line at the mention of her partner.

"So naughty. I take it he doesn't even know where you are." Hawkmoth hits the nail on the head. Ladybug does bother to reply instead she lets her actions speak for her.

Her stance shifts, her arms come out to attack and defend while her legs widen and ready should she need to move.

"I see..."

The two regard each other silently, acknowledging that if their situations were reversed, they would still have ended up here facing each other for the sake of their loved one.

Fighting erupts in the conservatorium.

X

"Would you really?" Hawkmoth sneered at her with hatred.

Lady looks at him with tired eyes, sad and resigned.

"For him, anything..." It's quiet like air expelled from breathless lips but he hears it anyway.

Hawkmoth looks taken aback and for a second there is a flash of understanding that passes through his eyes, before he lunges at Ladybug again, intent on weakening her and taking her miraculous.

She parries with her yo-yo, dodging his cane-knife.

 _'Beep, beep'_ Marinette knows she has to finish this soon and with her lucky charm in the shape of a fan lost in the darkness she was helpless and Hawkmoth knew that once her miraculous ran out it would be over. Ladybug would loose and she would have failed _him._

' _Beep, beep'_ This time it wasn't from her earrings but the butterfly shaped broach. She was surprised, before she didn't know where his miraculous was.

And for that one second she was distracted and that was all Hawkmoth needed.

He came from the front and his cane pierced her skin going straight through her.

A gasp of pain and shock as her hands covered the blade, bring pain to the forefront of her mind and with it a moment of clarity, Ladybug... no, Marinette knew what she had to do to finish this, to save Chat, to save Adrien.

With a determined look in her eyes, Ladybug pulled herself forward on the blade, pushing the cane through her until she reached Hawkmoth. In the corner of her eyes, she could see his shocked face as she dragged herself closer to him, forgoing her own pain.

When the broach was in reaching distance and she grabbed it, separating herself from the man but taking the blade with her.

And before her eye, Hawkmoth shifted into the stern man that was Adrien's father.

Holding on the broach with a death grip, she made her way, limping and dripping blood while still having the cane within her to the defeated man on the floor.

He looked up at her, defeat and confusion in his eyes.

"The world...for him." Is all she says and he understands because he had fallen so far for her, for the woman he loved and who vanished without a trace.

"I can help." He speaks, hands reaching up but Marinette flinches at the movement.

"No, he needs you here... and not in a prison cell." Her words are pained and so full of understanding before her fist reels back and hits him in the face, knocking him out cold.

Marinette limps away, leaving a trail of blood that pools underneath her when she sits down.

With shaking hands, Marinette opens her yo-yo and gently places the butterfly broach in the opening.

A white light engulfs the room as the yo-yo cleanse the miraculous of all the negative energy that had been building up since it was first used to harm others.

Her earrings beep once before her ladybug suit fades into Tikki.

"Marinette..."Her voice is so soft with disbelief and grief thickening it.

"Is he safe now?" is all she asks, peering imploringly at the small god, her arms lying lifeless on her lap.

"...He is..." Everything thing about her relaxes and she feels a great weight suddenly lift from her shoulder and her heart.

"Good, good...I think I'll rest for a bit." Marinette speaks breathlessly as her eyes slowly closed.

"No! Marinette! You need to stay awake!" But it was too late, her eyes were already shut.

Tikki floated down in disbelief because out of all the ladybugs that she had gifted with her abilities, out of all the years she had been around, never had she seen one ladybug do this...but then again not many even had the opportunity to.

Tikki stared at the peaceful face of Marinette uncomprehendingly before she noticed it, her chest shallowly rising.

She was breathing.

That revelation sent Tikki into a happy tizzy but she knew that Marinette needed help and since she is just a kwami, there was only one person who would be able to help.

Adrien.

With that Tikki flew out the small hole in the window at amazing speeds, her only thought of getting Marinette help powering her speed boost.

XX

Adrien was in the middle of class when he felt it, when all the negative energy he had taken in suddenly vanished.

At first he was so happy to have that terrible burden off his shoulders but then he started to worry because that would mean that something happened to Hawkmoth and in turn Ladybug.

He was worried that something happened to her too. He knew that ever since he started to purify the Akuma instead of Ladybug, he had been hurting her. He wasn't blind to the pain in her eyes every time he looked into them but lately something had been off with the way she acted.

At the start, she would stare at him with this unreadable look in her eye. That look always made him squirm and gave him the feeling of a lead weight in his stomach. But after a while all of that vanished and she changed again. It was like she was taking every opportunity to live because her time was limited. She was...

So carefree, so untamed and so Beautiful.

He was reminded of every reason he fell in love with her all over again.

But he could see the pain both as Marinette and Ladybug. But there had been something else in those eyes that scared him.

Resignation.

He didn't know what she had resigned herself to do, he knew her. She was the type to take the fall for some one she cared about. If the fall would save them then she would do it. She would do it without telling them, leaving them with the better choice even if it meant her pain. No questions asked.

Not only that but he didn't know how far she would go and it was something he never wanted to find out.

"..Uhuugh" A pained whimper floated up from his bag. While it was uncommon for Plagg to whine and complain about school, he never did it during class and not just that but Plagg wouldn't whimper, even in pain he wouldn't.

Too proud, that cat.

"Um...miss?" He raised his hand because he needed to check this out.

"Yes?" Ms Bustier turned to look at him.

"I really need to go to the bathroom."

"Be quick about it then" She waves dismissively and as Adrien rises from his seat. his eyes once again catch sight of the empty spot behind him and once more his guilt hit him hard.

As soon as he's out sight, Adrien opened his bag and peered inside.

Plagg flew out as soon as he did.

"Ladybug is in trouble!" Plaggs tells him urgently, flying around agitated.

No soon after he's said that, a flash of red barrels into him.

"Tikki!" Plagg cries out in relief.

"Please there's no time, Marinette needs help! And fast" There is a desperate urgency in her voice that snaps Adrien out of his shock.

His Lady needed help and he was going to be there damn it!

"Plagg, Claws out!" He yells his trans-formative phrase and in a flash of green light Chat Noir stands where Adrien once stood.

"Just tell me where." He says to the small red Kaimwi who is crying.

"At your house." She says softly.

"My house?" He questions as she clings to his suit.

"Please!" Chat shakes himself out of his stupor at the begging tone in her voice.

He nods his assent and heads to his house as fast as he can vaulting over roves and somersaulting over streets.

X

"Though that window!" He can see Tikki point to a stained glass window and he doesn't hesitate before he leaps through, smashing the window.

It's the smell that gets to him first. That copper smell that's associated with blood. When his eyes quickly adjust, he can see still form of his father.

He can see the him breathing and Chat lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

His eyes continue to scan the room but he didn't see it first, it was the whispers and the crying of Tikki that caught his attention.

His ears pinpointed the little god and when he turned to look, he suddenly wished he never had.

Because Marinette was lying slumped against a wall with what looked like a cane still protruding from her stomach. There was a shiny quality to floor around her.

Blood.

Then like a balloon had been popped, he rushed over to her, kneeling in her blood as he tried to shake her awake.

"No, nonono! Please!" The words fall out of his throat. He didn't want this to happen. He never wanted this, he just wanted her safe. Adrien's vision blurred as tears fell.

"Please..." The quite feeble plea was all he had left.

"...Chat..." He looked up in shock, he heard her speak his name.

"M'lady?" He can barely believe his ears.

"...H-i..." Marinette smiled weakly at him, her eyes so blue and saying more than her own words could.

The ' _I love you'_ and ' _you're safe'_ and ' _I'm sorry'_ and ' _Thank you'._

Adrien's heart clenched at the sight of Marinette who was always so strong look so fragile and broken. It hurt.

"Hey..." He replies as quietly with his own strained smile.

"...Glad it was you..." Adrien felt her slip through his fingers and his heart shattered.

"No! Please! I need you!" He screamed into the dark, begging his prayers be heard.

"Chat Noir! Adrien!" Tikki shrilly shouted, getting his attention back from the fact that the love of his life was slowly dying in his arms.

"You need to take her to the Hospital! She's still breathing but barely!" Tikki told him firmly.

' _That's right. There's a chance I can save her...'_ He looked at the peaceful face of Marinette, of Ladybug the woman he declared to protect with his life but the tables had been turned on him without knowing and she had saved him instead.

He reaches out and snaps the blade off, he knows that removing it would only make it worse.

Adrien scooped her up her fragile form before bounding out of the broken window and out into Paris. Hurrying to get to the nearest hospital, praying to what ever gods out there to hold Marinette her long enough to get her help, so she can wake up and he can apologise, so he can joke with her and live out the rest of his life with her.

' _Please Marinette, Stay with me...'_

* * *

 _So, Penny for your thoughts?_

 _And to those who have read my Naruto fanfics, they are not abandoned I promise!_


End file.
